One must be impressed with the professionalism, humility, and steadfastness of Defense Secretary Gates in his first year running the Pentagon. I thought , and continue to think, the departure of Sec. Rumsfeld was unnecessary, timed wrongly, and handled poorly, and was skeptical of the Gates appointment, given the past Iran-Contra mess, and a co-authored report (published 2004) with Zbigniew Brzezinski calling for resumption of quasi- normal ties with Iran, one that reflected the weaknesses of the realist school of diplomacy.

But I was dead wrong that all that presaged anything. It didn’t: Gates has done an excellent job articulating our course in Iraq through the surge, dealing with the strain on military manpower, the increased budget, the Walter Reed Hospital scandal, the controversy over Guantanamo, the torture controversy, the threatened congressional cut-offs and restrictions, the naval build-up in the Gulf, and the serial ongoing Iranian crises. At this critical time, we are very, very lucky to have him. He, Gen. Petraeus, and Sen. McCain have stepped forward to be the most articulate defenders of our present determination to win the war for Iraqi democracy-when such voices were needed most.